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County Council District 7 recount certified

The results of the County Council District 7 mandatory manual recount were certified Thursday, Dec. 4. The results confirmed Derek Young received the most votes and is the winner.

The Pierce County Canvassing Board met Thursday afternoon to review the results of the recount. Over the past week, Elections staff in the Pierce County Auditor’s office sorted and reviewed 220,827 ballots a total of three times. Four-person teams recounted the ballots by hand. The recount showed an increase of 17 votes for Young and an increase of 16 votes for Stan Flemming.

Due to the extra scrutiny given to these ballots, some very light marks were identified on ballots by the recounting teams, but not originally read by the optical scan tabulators. These were then counted as votes during the recount. Therefore, the number of undervotes decreased and the number of votes for candidates increased.

This race had a total of 45,396 ballots. Thirty-three votes changed, which equals less than one tenth of one percent (0.073%) of total ballots.

“I am very proud of our elections team. They performed a difficult task quickly and accurately,” said Julie Anderson, Pierce County Auditor. “I’m also grateful to the dozens of political observers who volunteered their time to closely oversee this process.”

Work wrapped up earlier than expected. Labor costs associated with the recount were less than projected, with the cost of the recount expected to come in at $35,000. The Auditor’s original cost estimate was $40,000 to $50,000.